More than 10 years ago, in my mid 20s, I had severe abdominal pain on the left and blood in my stool. I had no health insurance at the time, so I went to Urgent Care. I had a very high white blood cell count and a fever. Doc wanted to admit me to the hospital, but the hospital did not because of lack of insurance. Sent me home with antibiotics and I got better. Six weeks later I had a colonoscopy that showed diverticulosis. The doc said I most likely had had diverticulitis.

Since then, I have gone to the ER 3x and have 3 CT Scans showing diverticulitis. Neither time was I in much pain and had no blood in the stool, but I think I have just learned what the signs are and get help ASAP, so I have not had an attack as bad as the first.

There have been about 3-4 other times that I just went to Urgent Care and asked for antibiotics after giving them my history, most would just give me antibiotics and send me on my way.

I am 39 now. My last episode was in July. This time they kept me overnight for IV antibiotics. I also had a UTI along with the diverticulitis, so they thought it was safer to keep me.

Went home, took antibiotics and now I am having recurrent abdominal pain. Not the same as when I have diverticulitis, but just really crampy feeling.

So now I have to decide if I should do surgery. None of my episodes of diverticulitis were severe though and I just wonder how much risk there is for me to have an attack that would lead to emergency surgery. I have not had more than one attack within a one year period. They have been spaced pretty far apart. Not sure if that matters.

I am leaning towards doing the surgery, but just wanted some input from others than have been there. My GI doc thinks I should have it done, especially since I was diagnosed at such a young age. I had a colonoscopy on Monday and he recommended it after seeing the diverticula. But the surgeon won't say one way or the other.

The surgeon said I would most likely need open surgery due to tons of scar tissue that I have from appendicitis when I was 10. So he is not sure if he could do it laparoscopically.

When it comes to anything wrong in the stomach and intestine areas, I think surgery would help. My mother-in-law had stomach pain most of her life and never went to the doctors for it. It turned out she had an ulcer that burst and sent her septic. She is lucky she lived through that. I've had stomach pain after the age of 40 and it turned out I had gall bladder disease, then pancreatitis twice, and now have terrible IBS. If your symptoms are interfering with your every day life, get it done and over with. I know surgery is a huge step but all in all it will make you better. Hopefully some others will post with their experiences and we can all help you decide.

Thanks! I am leaning more and more towards doing the surgery. It just seems drastic to me because I don't feel like I have had the issues that I read about others having. But the more I read, the more I realize that having multiple episodes of diverticulitis at a young age put me at a greater risk for having major complications and then needing emergency surgery. I think doing it now would just be easier than dealing with a potential emergency later on.

Hi Tammy ~ I was in the same predicament as you having had numerous bouts of Diverticulitis, 2 hospitalizations when first being diagnosed and about 3 more episodes in which, like you, knew the symptoms early enough to start the antibiotics thus preventing a hospitalization.

Upon my 2nd hospitalization one of the GI docs told me that he highly recommended the surgery because with the way things were going it was just a matter of time that I would have a perforation of the bowel requiring an emergency colostomy and surgery with whatever doctor was on call in the ER with the resection months later after healing took place.

I weighed these options, feeling that it was to my advantage to be able to choose my surgeon rather than getting "joe-schmoe" who may not be the best and also succumbing to complications of a perforated colon which could be fatal if not treated immediately (this is far worse than a ruptured appendix)

And so with great thought I decided to go ahead with the resection. I was 45 years old at the time and had it done 8 years ago and I have to say it was by far the best decision I ever made.

Had it done laproscopically, although the recuperation time for both lap and open is about the same since the same internal muscles are cut etc.

They removed the 8 inches of my sigmoid colon which was the problem area......since then I did have one small incident of diverticulitis that I treated with antibiotics and was confirmed on CAT scan and via colonoscopy but which the GI doc feels will be no problem as like before because it's less amount of tics (pockets in one area)

So....it is an elective decision to make but as confirmation to me that I made the right decision a friend of mine had one bout of diverticulitis that landed him in ICU with a perforated bowel.....he was in a coma for almost a week and lost his spleen and had sepsis.

He almost didn't make it and had the emergency colostomy having to deal with that for a good 5 months and then had the resection surgery.

I recall that GI doc scaring me by saying that after a few attacks in the same area it's like a timebomb waiting to happen and that with each attack the lining gets thinner making a perforation a very likely occurrence.

I don't mean to scare you, just sharing my own personal experience with you.

If you have any questions feel free to ask, I will be more than happy to answer any concerns you may have regarding the surgery and what to expect.

Ivory, thank you for sharing your story. It makes sense that having multiple infections could weaken the colon. I never thought about that. The pain I have had has always been on the same place every time, so they may have all been in the same area, but I don't know for sure.

At this point, I am about 90% sure that I will do the surgery. I really like my GI doc and I am normally not a big fan of doctors, so to find one I trust is a rarity for me. The surgeon he recommended seems alright as well. My GI doc says he is the best, and I trust my GI doc, so it makes sense to use the surgeon he recommends. And you are right about not having a choice if it is emergency surgery. I hadn't thought of that either.

Decided to go through with surgery. I called today to schedule, but the surgery coordinator had already left for the day. She will call tomorrow. I requested a date in mid Dec since my folks will be in town and can help out with my 20 month old son. They did say that it would be before the end of the year. Not sure if I will get my mid Dec date, but at least it will be soon.

I'm 6 weeks out from a resection and have a similar history and age as you am virtually cured!! Do not hesitate to do this; you don't need that lower part of your colon; it evolved to extract water during famine and drought. Pick a surgeon that does this often, and plan on resting a lot afterwards. You are getting rid of a time bomb in your gut.. Right decision!! Best to you!!